My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Tuesday, 31 October 2017

“Cascades d'Allerheiligen”
or “Wasserfälle von Allerheiligen”, c1840, published with three folds (see my
attribution of the publisher in the discussion about this print), printed by E
Simon & Fils (fl. 1840s) Strasbourg.

(Note that my attribution of this date is based on access to the
waterfalls being opened to the public by a path having been constructed by the
forestry department/authority in 1840—see the upper section of the image where
a path is visible. Nevertheless, the falls were accessible before 1940 by use
of ladders and these may also to be seen in the lower section of this image.)

Lithograph in two colours (black and light cream) on laid paper,
published with three folds. The folds have been flattened and the sheet is
lined onto a support sheet.

Condition: faultless, well-printed impression with margins in
excellent condition. There are flattened folds from the publication format and
a few faint spots of foxing at the upper right. The sheet is laid upon a conservator’s
support sheet of fine washi paper.

I am selling this remarkable lithograph of the All Saints
Waterfalls (German: Allerheiligen-Wasserfälle) that Wikipedia advises is “located
in the Black Forest on the territory of the town of Oppenau in the German state
of Baden-Württemberg” for AU$114 (currently US$87.36/EUR75.10/GBP66.09 at the
time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this highly unusual
topographical view of cascades where each level of the falls is at eye-level,
please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal
invoice to make the payment easy.

From what I have been able to discover from records in IdRef
(Identifiers and Repositories) regarding the origin of this exceptionally long
vertical lithograph, is that it may have been extracted from either of these two
publications (but there may be another that I have not discovered):

- “Map of the course of the Rhine from Basel to Lauterbourg”,
published by the Department of Rhine Works in 1934, consisting of 18 plates
commissioned by Mr Couturat at the expense of the Administration for Bridges
and Roads (see: http://www.sudoc.fr/168430002)

- “Works of the Rhine …” (cartographic material) published by the
Department of Rhine Works in 1853 in the 6th edition with
lithographs by E Simon & Fils (see: http://www.sudoc.fr/168831147)

What makes this print so special is that it is a perfect example of
how a skilful 19th century lithographer might represent the topographical
complexity of stepped waterfalls. This is an amazing feat! What is interesting
to compare this print with—and I admit that the comparison is a tad far
flung—is Dujardin’s treatment of the tree discussed in my previous post. In
Dujardin’s approach to representing a tall tree, he has determined where his
eye-level is on the tree and above and below this point he gradually changes the
curves of his contour strokes to match his angle of view. In the case of Simon’s
representation of this trail of waterfalls, Simon has changed his angle of view
with each waterfall so that each drop is at eye-level. This approach is, of
course, highly appropriate for a typographical representation of the stepped
falls but it is remarkably different to Dujardin’s intimately personal
viewpoint.